Hey Poptropicans, we’re approaching the end of the month, which means it’s time to announce another lucky Poptropican to win our monthly membership giveaway! 🎁
Congrats, coconotmilq — your first foray into paid-for Pop privilege unearths a treasure trove of exclusive costumes and clubhouse items from the store, as well as the chance to play the members-only Rumpel’s Challenge. Pop on over and away from the chaos of life!
If you’re not a member, you still have the chance (or many chances, in fact): the PHB is hosting a giveaway every month, and it’s easy to enter! Just comment on the Free Poptropica Membership page and leave at least two other comments around the PHB within the month to be entered into that month’s giveaway.
We’ll announce a winner sometime in the final week of each month. If you don’t win, you can always try again for the next month! Full details »
Don’t forget we also have another opportunity for membership this month with the PHB’s Halloween Costume Contest! Blow us away with your grim get-up or whimsical wonder, and you might just win a prize.
Congrats again to coconotmilq, and as always, keep on popping on! 🥥
Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post by Silver Shell. Enjoy!
Hey Poptropicans! It’s been a while since my last post, but anyway, this post is about the top 5 most missed classic islands.
Before I start, I want to make it clear that I can’t speak for everyone, so don’t feel bad if your own favorite islands don’t come up here. This list was made by looking at comments on the Pop Creators’ Blog and the PHB, and seeing which islands seem to be in the highest demand for return. So let’s dive in to the Pop 5 most petitioned islands!
Because you are given an awesome outfit and the ability to fly, this island is pretty popular throughout the fandom. While the ending is rather annoying in my opinion (why would they give the medallion to Hot Dog Boy??!!) I loved the plot and getting to defeat all these villains all in one island. When do you get multiple main villains on one island?! Coming in way before Super Villain Island, this was a first.
This island has so much to do and certainly keeps you busy, making you go back and forth a million times. It’s definitely in high demand.
This one was definitely one of my personal favorites, because it’s actually an island I’ve always dreamed of! It’s really cool when you receive all your top secret spy stuff. My friends and I certainly enjoyed camouflaging and flying around with our bowties like Spiderman.
I feel like what made this island really popular was earning your spy gear instead of it just being handed to you, plus getting to free each agent one at a time, slowly uncovering Director D’s secret. To be honest, when I played, it took me like five weeks from starting the island to figure out how everything came together (shhh… don’t tell anyone).
Do I even need to explain this one? I took one look at the name and it was already one of the greatest islands I’ve ever seen. The combination of medieval knights, astronomical science, and connections to the legend of Camelot made it really exciting to the majority of players. It was undeniably original and all the twists and turns made it truly interesting as well as intriguing.
Similar to Spy Island with the slow reveal of Director D’s true character, the disappearance of Mordred and the princess continuously came up throughout the first half of the island, leaving bits of information for you to piece together. Getting to design your own spaceship was cool, and trying to defend it from space sharks and evil aliens (unlike the hospitable ones of Pewter Moon) was rather thrilling. I enjoyed the mini-quests you had to conquer on the smaller islands like the Ice Planet, and how you kept getting tricked into thinking the princess would appear when you defeated one.
Overall, this island is just a great story. Hope it comes back soon.
On this island, you board a train and find out a crime has been committed. Most Poptropicans favor this island because of the stimulating problem that arises out of nowhere, getting to interrogate famous historical figures, and the emotional rollercoaster of how a person is suspicious one second, and the next they’re proved innocent.
I loved exploring rooms, snooping through people’s luggage, running on top of the train, and getting to stop it whenever the heck I wanted just by talking to the captain. Hehe.
The end was great in my opinion. Piecing together the identity of the culprit with President Grover Cleveland was enthralling and somehow made a lot of sense in the end. All in all, one heck of a good island!
Reputed to be the longest island ever to appear on Poptropica, there was always work to do on Skullduggery Island. When you first get on it, you can clearly see the place is in bad shape. Rather depressing, I guess, what with all the ruins and problems.
People say they enjoy this island because of how much trading you get to do throughout, from helping out the locals because I want to win and gets loads of credits HAHA out of the goodness of our hearts, to travelling from island to island, trading tediously to gain wealth so you could reclaim the rightful treasure of Fort Ridley.
Getting to purchase ships and hire a crew is fun, and it was pleasurable solving the mysteries of where the map pieces were. Fighting sea monsters, getting sunk every once in a while, and navigating from port to port made this island interesting and action-filled.
So there it is! Five islands that are petitioned for the most! Put your favorites in the comments. If the Pop Creators are reading this, I hope this gives you an idea of which islands to start working on. Thank you!
The Poptropica Help Blog welcomes interesting Poptropica insights from anyone in the Poptropica community with thoughts to share. Interested in writing for the PHB? We’d love to hear from you! 📰✨
Back before the days of side quests and short islands, Poptropica islands were often long, leisurely, exploratory experiences that could take hours to complete and maybe needed walkthroughs to figure out. But if you already know where you’re going and what you’re doing, the island medallion can come a lot sooner. Enter the art of speedrunning!
A speedrun is a play-through of a game (or a level within it) as quickly as possible, and can apply to pretty much any video game. Unlike playing through a game the usual way and taking in all the sights and sounds, speedrunning aims to do things differently, maybe even involving some clever tricks to get to the goal of a speedy finish. Poptropicans on YouTube have gotten in on the challenge, too!
(Note: All the islands featured below are old islands that can currently only be accessed through Flashpoint, not the official game.)
Earlier this month, popular speedrunner EazySpeezy zipped through Counterfeit Island, clocking in at just under 18 minutes and condensing the adventure into a 10-minute video that already has 725K+ views. His main strategy is to use the backspace key to teleport places. Check it:
Another speedrunner, Motorjam, manages to complete Super Power Island in about 5 minutes (for reference, the PHB’s video walkthrough, which already contains some sped-up parts, is 12 minutes long). His strategy is to use a glitch with the clapboard item that allows players to jump over and over again, essentially “flying” to be able to reach high places, which comes in especially handy for catching Crusher.
Even islands known for being short can be made shorter still. Snakey642 suavely masters Shark Tooth Island in under a minute, again making use of the clapboard, this time to fly right over the shark-infested waters to rescue the stranded and save the day.
You can find lots more of these challenges on YouTube, as well as browse through (or clock in your own) world records on Speedrun.com.
What’s the most impressive Poptropica speedrun you’ve ever seen? Are you in a hurry to try this challenge combining memory, gaming, and glitching? Run wild and (figuratively) break a leg!
Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post by Silver Horse. Enjoy!
Hello, fellow Poptropicans! When you see a Poptropican, with their large head and noodly limbs, what do you think about its biology and anatomy? A bird, plant, maybe a robot? Well, I have a theory that makes a lot of sense as well, at least to me. Here it is…
Part 1: The anatomy of a Poptropican
Now, as my theory goes, Poptropica takes place in the 4200s, on a future earth. (For this to work, Astro-Knights would have to take place in an alternate dimension.) Yes, you heard that right. 4200s.
Back during the 2200s, a society of aliens from Astro-Knights on the moon accidentally opened a portal to our dimension, ending up on a tropical island in Hawaii, which is where the “tropican” in the “Poptropican” species name comes from.
Blast-off!
When they first found Earth, the aliens didn’t know English or any other human language, so they communicated with body language before they started learning ways of speaking and writing. After finding other intelligent life on Earth, the aliens ended up having kids with humankind, creating the first generations of Poptropicans. The aliens had three fingers per hand, so averaging out with the humans’ five fingers, Poptropicans ended up having four fingers on each hand, and for some reason only had one oval toe on each foot.
A Poptropican’s average height would be around four-and-a-half feet tall, between a human’s six feet and an alien’s three feet. Their head and eye shape was inherited from the aliens, able to breathe despite having no necks or noses, by having a really thin piece of skin in their faces that allowed air to trespass. The necks are anti-gravity, having a wormhole between the bottom of the head and the top of the body, with the vocal chords in the top front of the body.
The authorities on Earth had not realized the aliens and their half-human children, dubbed “Poptropicans,” were a threat, but conflicts grew into a worldwide war between humans who sided with governments and humans who sided with the aliens and Poptropicans. By the time the war was over and the Poptropicans survived, the humans were very few, and had no choice but to reproduce with the aliens and Poptropicans. A few generations later, and humans went extinct.
Belt It Out: Someone get Kuiper on the line.
Part 2: A rough Poptropican timeline
Now, maybe you’re wondering, “But Silver Horse, Poptropican technology looks just like present-day tech!”Well, I have an explanation for that, and there are a few high-tech things.
Firstly, going back to when the humans went extinct, the Poptropican officials vowed to start over from the year 0 and follow in humans’ footsteps. To keep the new order of the universe, they formed the secret organization “‘Tropicans in Black,” which are the spies from Spy Island.
During World War P, as I like to call it, a combination of climate change and bombs and the like caused most continents* to split apart, forming Poptropica’s current islands. Mythical creatures and beings also revealed their existence, which explains islands like Fairytale, Mythology, and Realms. (*An exception is Africa, which stayed intact, as canonically seen in Nabooti Island.)
By the time of current Poptropica in the 4200s, time travel and alternate universe travel had been invented, as seen in the likes of Time Tangled Island. The ‘Tropicans in Black were compelled to take more extreme measures and invent the PoptropiLens, an equipped device that allows Poptropicans to see all humans and animals in the past as Poptropicans and Poptropican-like animals, without altering anything else, and without explaining what this technology was for.
Whattya Buyin: Got some good things on sale, stranger.
There were some mess-ups, though, such as a few statues in Time Tangled being humanoid, and handprints in Mystery Train and Back Lot having five fingers and not four. Other high-tech devices include the Colorizer, a permanent, automatic skin and hair dyer; CJ’s shrink ray; and the aforementioned time and dimension travel.
Print It: The marks of a legend.
There was also the introduction of sapient animal-like Poptropicans, which are either half-Poptropican hybrids (Silver Horse is one of these, albeit ¼ Poptropican) or through a Frankenstein-like surgical process, enlarging an animal’s head, transplanting a Poptropican’s brain into it, removing the Poptropican’s head, and sewing the animal’s head to the Poptropican, similar to deities of Egyptian mythology.
Silver Horse, a purple unicorn dragon cat
Anatomy of a Poptropican from Virus Hunter Island
Other than these, the tech and life of Poptropicans is almost exactly like ours as humans, except for things accommodating their four fingers, like musical instruments for example.
Finally, Poptropica’s Amelia was the actual, human Amelia Earhart. During her disappearance, she accidentally flew into a portal that turned her into a Poptropican, crashing on Home Island, leading to the events of Monkey Wrench Island.
Your Poptropican is a secret agent working with the ‘Tropicans in Black to save islands, and is actually a 20-something adult. Since your older self in Time Tangled (50 years into the future) looks at least 70, this seems to check out. Plus, correct me if I’m wrong, but the only times your Poptropican gets called a kid appear to be in the sponsored islands, which mostly take place in alternate universes where you would seem the size of a child, because the average height in those universes is taller than in the Poptropican universe.
With that, my theory is done! Let me know your possible explanations for why Poptropicans look the way they do, and how that might relate to future Poptropica. See you next time!
Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Silver Horse. If you did, you might also like another post of his: a Clubhouse Tour with animals galore!
The Poptropica Help Blog welcomes interesting Poptropica insights from anyone in the Poptropica community with thoughts to share. Interested in writing for the PHB? We’d love to hear from you! 📰✨
Time for spooky season, Poptropicans! 🎃 While there are several contenders for creepy Poptropica Islands (including Vampire’s Curse and Virus Hunter), I decided on one that, in my opinion, is the absolute peak of Pop’s storytelling. Many people know I love a good bittersweet tale, and this island is exactly that…
Repent: Or they’ll lock you up and throw away the key.
While naturally family-friendly, Ghost Story takes on some deep topics compared to past islands, notably death, betrayal, and the difficulty to forgive and find peace, both from the actions of others and yourself.
I actually did cover this island before in the PHB’s Ramble Review series, and you can read it here!
Spooky Scenes: Could this be a scene for a new Poptropica Island?
Ghost Story also has some quite impressive art and background design, and also included the 3D sailing map seen in Skullduggery! This is used to go from island to island in this… island. In each area you learn about the different characters, and eventually how they are all connected, from the lighthouse to the prison.
Stringing Along: Play the music if the spirit moves you.
Ghost Story is also one of the first islands (pre-SUI, i.e. pre-Sound Updated Island) to include sound! Many Poptropicans remember the shock of hearing the voice of a character, Fiona — something that wasn’t done again until Survival Island and PoptropiCon. Along with that, there’s also the short but very sweet violin song you get to play.
Ghost Story also has some soundtracks made and released by Jeff Heim! They appear to be for whenever it would be updated to SUI or ported to Haxe, although this has yet to happen.
So let’s continue Fiona’s legacy! Ghost Story and other classic islands were rendered unplayable in the Flash-Haxe transition, but it should not go to waste. Let the Poptropica Creators know what you appreciate about the island to encourage them to preserve it!
🏝 Poptropica Help Blog 🗺 